Welcome to Map Suite™ from ThinkGeo, a complete family of GIS software development kits that will help you build cutting-edge mapping and spatially aware applications. Using Map Suite's intuitive APIs, programmers who write code in C# can create professional-grade Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software featuring interactive maps, spatial analysis, geoprocessing and location, and much more. Even developers inexperienced with GIS can add fully-functional maps to their projects in just moments.

In this article, we will discuss how to install Map Suite 9.0 or higher on your computer and prepare your development environment for creating Map Suite-powered projects.

• A Macintosh running OS X Mountain Lion or higher (although we recommend the latest version).
• Xamarin iOS SDK.
• Xamarin Android SDK.
• Android's SDK Manager and AVD Manager.
• Apple’s Xcode IDE and iOS SDK (we recommend the latest version from the App Store).
• (With Xamarin Studio installed, we can develop on Mac directly without using a Windows machine.)

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Xamarin iOS SDK.
• Xamarin Android SDK.
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher.
• Xamarin’s plug-in for Visual Studio.
• .NET Framework 4.5 or higher

• Xamarin plug-in is not supported by Visual Studio Express editions.
• The Windows computer must be able to reach the Mac via the network.

Map Suite requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 or newer.

• Download the .NET 4.5 web installer free from Microsoft

• Xamarin Firewall Configuration Instructions

  Xamarin Firewall Configuration

• iOS

  For iOS installation instructions, click here.

• Android

  For android installation instructions, click here.

All of the Map Suite GIS developer controls are delivered through the ThinkGeo Product Center, a Windows application that serves as the central point for you to install, evaluate, purchase and activate Map Suite products. To begin using any Map Suite edition, such as MVC or WPF Desktop, you must first install Product Center.

1. Download the ThinkGeo Product Center. 2. Once the download is complete, double-click the .msi file to begin installation.

3. The installer window will appear. Click the “Next” button to proceed with the next step.

4. You will now be asked to accept the ThinkGeo software license agreement. Once you have read the license in its entirety, check the box at the bottom of the window and click “Next”.

5. On this step, choose the installation directory for the Product Center. Then, click “Next”.

6. Product Center is now ready to be installed. To proceed, click the “Install” button. At this point, you may be asked to enter credentials for an administrator account on Windows Vista / Server 2008 or higher. Make sure you say “Yes” to the User Account Control prompts, or the installation will not be able to continue.

7. The installation process will begin. It may take a few minutes for the Product Center to install and decompress all of its files. A blue bar will indicate its progress until this is complete. When the installation finishes successfully, you will be shown the following screen.

8. Click the “Finish” button to exit the installer. If the “Launch Product Center” checkbox is selected, the Product Center will open when the installer exits.

Launch the ThinkGeo Product Center application to explore the exciting world of Map Suite GIS. Each Map Suite edition ships with code samples, kick-start templates, videos and more to help you start developing your first application quickly!

Next, we recommend that you take a look at our ThinkGeo Product Center article to learn how to find your way around the Product Center application.